Chinese Softwood Lumber and Log Imports Recorded Three-Fold Jump

The softwood lumber and log imports by China have more than tripled over the past ten years. In particular, the imports volumes of lumber have outclassed those of log during the past two years. This is in accordance with the latest Wood Resource Quarterly (WRQ) Report published by the Wood Resources International.
The limited domestic resources continue to put China as a major importer of forest products including lumber, logs, chips, pulp and paper. The country’s import volumes of softwood lumber and logs touched new record in 2017, despite slowdown in house construction sector. According to WRQ, China emerged as the world’s top importer of logs during the previous year. Also, China is only next to the U.S. in terms of total softwood lumber imports.

Over the past two years, there has been a significant jump in imports of softwood lumber. The lumber import volumes during the year exceeded logs by nearly 36%. This is a major shift from the past, when there were more log shipments than lumber entering the country’s ports. The total imports of softwood lumber and logs have surged higher by 3.5 times in round wood equivalents (RWE).
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WRQ Report notes that the supply sources have changed dramatically over the past five years. The softwood lumber shipments from Russia into China have more than doubled. The shipments from Nordic countries too have recorded notable jump. On the other hand, imports from North American region have declined during this period. With regards to log supplies, Australia became the major supplier, with volumes nearly tripling from 1.6 million cubic metres in 2013 to 4.2 million cubic metres in 2017. The U.S., Canada, Russia, New Zealand and Australia continued to remain as the top five log suppliers in 2017, accounting for nearly 92% of all log imports during the year.